Soybean

Mississippi farmers plant approximately 2.0 million acres of soybeans each year. This acreage fluctuates some, but that depends mainly on commodity markets and the impact of weather on other acreages. Our all time high acreage was 4.0 million acres in 1979.

Vast changes have taken place in recent years in soybean production in Mississippi. First, we’ve begun planting the bulk of our acreage in maturity Groups IV and V whereas in the early 1980’s the bulk of our acreage was planted in maturity Groups VI and VII. Secondly, we are planting this crop earlier. In recent years, much of the state crop has been planted prior to mid June whereas in the past over a third was usually not planted until after mid June.

Mississippi is not a major state production wise, but soybeans are an important commodity on most farms. State average yields during the 1970’s and 1980’s averaged 21-22 bushels per acre. During the decade of the, 1990’s state average yields have increased to 26.6 bushels per acre.

Based on current practices we have determined that the two most important inputs in soybean production are variety selection and planting dates. Numerous factors effect production, but no other inputs can offer the potential return of the proper variety or timely planting.

Consultant Commentary

Reporting from South Mississippi, Trey Bullock, Hattiesburg
6/15/17 – Cotton is from just coming up to 13th node. Aphids are really picking up in some areas. Plant bugs in areas are running 20-30% on pinhead cotton. These fields were grown up with large weeds last week and I guess were harboring large numbers. When weeds died they moved into cotton. We are still too wet in some fields but actually saw a little dust flying today.
Peanuts are from 20 – 60 days old and are looking better where they’ve had a few sunny days. Still have fields that are waterlogged bad and seem to catch every scattered shower that come through. Gypsum was being applied to most fields I looked at today.
The few soybeans I have up are at R4.5 and look really good. Not a lot of insects at the present time. Hopefully planters will be able to run in the next day or two.

Reporting from East Mississippi, Phillip McKibben, Maben
6/15/17 – This year we will find out whether sweetpotato production and Xtend technologies are compatible. Our sweetpotato plant-beds were hit with dicamba drift early, and we have fields that have had exposure to multiple waves of dicamba drift in Tallahatchie County. And we fully expect them to be exposed to more waves of dicamba drift in the near future. It’s hard to be optimistic when neighboring fields of knee-high soybeans are being destroyed and replanted right across the turn-row because of dicamba drift injury. Time will tell the effect on our crop.
Corn is in full tassel to blister stage, and moisture is almost adequate in most locations. Pivots will begin and pumps will be humming next week for sure though. We’ve seen some common rust, and there’s no shortage of earworms in non-Bt varieties.
Soybeans are growing rapidly. We’re bouncing between R2 and R2-R3, hoping to maintain vegetative growth in our indeterminate varieties on dryland acres. Alfalfa hoppers have finally shown up, but numbers are very much suppressed in our traditional hotbed locations compared with recent years. We’re finding odd mixes of cloverworms, grape colaspis, and stinkbugs of all flavors, but no issues requiring treatment as of yet.
Cotton is finally beginning to grow. Some 7-leaf cotton is only this week looking like a crop that one wants to claim, yet some of our earlier cotton has had 10 oz. of mepiquat, and likely will get more next week, and looks great. Plantbugs have been a little heavier than we usually see, but we’ve been able to reduce them by tank-mixing imidacloprid with herbicides or growth regulator so far.
We finished transplanting sweetpotatoes this week (or will by this weekend). This crop has had a great start overall, and excepting herbicide complaints in the delta, we’ve had little else to occupy us. The early crop is plowed, sprayed with Dual and layed by.These acres will be lapped by the middle of next week. What’s been set in the past two weeks looks decent in most places.

Reporting from the North Delta, Justin George, Merigold
6/16/2017 – Rice: ranges from Midseason fertilize timing to some just planted. 1/2 is flooded, 1/4 is going to flood… We have had a lot of success keeping early fields almost grass free. Early seems to be the key with most things these days.
Sharpen in Rice fields seems to hold pigweeds better/longer than some our Soybean pre programs. Rice is a good rotational Crop for the pigweed acre!
Soybeans: ranging from just Planted to R4 (in early dryland). Struggled on the front with some Low Germ/Low vigor “Premium” Varieties this year. This caused replant in May planted beans which had fine conditions for emergence. 80% germ ended up being 50% stands (???). I hope they all make up for it in the end – yield wise. Great Heart and Agrigold Varieties came up with gusto (95% plus stands) btw, in the same fields….same planting date.
The Pigweed game is really changing for me. We’ve had real pressure for years. In April planted fields, the RR program approach does great. BUT if the Gramoxone shot is missed or not perfect in May, the wheels just fall off without Liberty or Extend. Sitting on a farm now that had two burndowns (with residual) and TWO Paraquat (with residual) apps at planting and still had pigweeds 2 weeks later. Corn seems to be the best fix if it is planted/sprayed before the pigs emerge. I’m 90% Extend based off of the growers’ decisions to play defense against Drift from neighbors. So glad they choose that route too. Very few have had to use the technology but those that chose to got very good efficacy out of the product. The others have protected themselves at some place on every farm from an off site Drift. Finding volunteer Soybeans in our fields, that are 1/4 mile away from Dicamba sprayed fields, that are twisted up. Some Drift, some is Volatility. Who knows?
Corn: mostly R3-R4. Great looking corn in Bolivar/Sunflower county. Haven’t sprayed Fungicide yet, and probably won’t… but the Common Rust itself is bothering me. We’ve only had to water one time. Wish price was $4.50-$5.00 per bushel.
Wheat: mostly cut… haven’t heard yields. Rains delayed harvest by two weeks. Did spray for Rust. No worms.

Reporting from the North Delta, Winston Earnheart, Tunica
Crops are looking good but need a general rain. Cotton is second week of squaring to blooming and is in good shape. Plant bugs have been rather light, with fields receiving 0 to 2 applications of insecticide. Control has been adequate and square set percentage has been high.
Rice is from just being flooded to some going into the boot stage. Over all, the rice crop is good. We are touching up some grass areas, and struggling to get a flood on the late planted rice. We have also had to deal with chinch bugs on some of the late rice.
Soybeans are from just emerged to R3 and we are beginning to apply some
R3 treatments. We have found some areas of kudzu bugs, but not to treatment levels. Some fields are troublesome with pigweed control.
Corn is being irrigated and most is through with pollination. We are worried about much of the corn pollinating during a heat wave.

Reporting from the North Delta, Tim Sanders, Sarah
6-12-2017 – Most corn is tasseling and relatively quiet. We had a few isolated stinkbugs early that we treated but that is it. Crop looks good.
Soybeans are 1-2 trifoliates to R3. Some have struggled with waterlogged conditions and early herbicide damage but most are recovering. Oldest beans look great. We have had some green stinkbugs building but haven’t treated any yet. Dicamba drift has occurred in a few locations and we are still trying to figure a few situations out. Herbicide delays and pigweed growth have made for some desperate situations in some cases.
Cotton is from planted this past Friday up to 10th node and squaring. We have treated small acreage for plantbugs but I expect that to increase quickly. Thrips were in many fields and some got treated but with the frequent rains, we avoided treating a lot of fields. Some cotton was planted 3 times because of sandblasting.
Rice is mostly planted. Some is at midseason. We have been way behind getting levees up due to all the rains. Lots of delays have occurred in herbicide treatments as well but overall the rice has remained fairly clean. We were able to hit some early to buy time and in many cases the pre’s worked very well with the moisture.
We had a good run of dry weather last week and into the weekend. A tremendous amount of field work got done and we needed that.

Reporting from the South Delta, Dee Boykin, Yazoo City
6-12-2017 – Rain, rain and more rain! That’s been the story of this spring, but we have still managed to get most of our crops planted. Keeping some clean has been a real challenge.
The corn is from tassel to milk stage and looks very good. In fields with plant populations from 32-35,000 we are seeing ears averaging around 18 rows of kernels with kernels per row in the high 30’s to low 40’s. We have loads of potential but still 30-45 days to maturity. Common Rust has been in most fields for quite some time and we were concerned that it may develop into a problem with the absence of high daytime temperatures, but it hasn’t. We’ve seen a little Northern Corn Leaf Blight and Southern Rust but nothing of concern so far. We’ve seen lesions that could develop into Gray Leaf Spot or Southern Corn Leaf Blight but nothing confirmed yet.
Over 90 percent of our soybeans were planted in the month of April and some will be at R4 this week. We’ve struggled to keep the pigweed under control in a few locations but the early start helped with this on most. The burndown and preplant herbicides did their jobs and the dicamba has proven to be another valuable tool. We’ve had some cotton acres switch to soybeans this month so we’ll have a few acres that will be late. Stink bugs are showing up in most fields including Red Banded. This will make these late planted soybeans a challenge to protect. As with the corn, this soybean crop has potential.
Most of our cotton crop just started squaring or will be at pinhead this week. We have a very small percentage that has been squaring for a couple of weeks now and finding plenty of tarnished plant bugs in it already. We’ve managed to keep the weeds under control and feel good about continuing to do so with the wider dicamba application window but have seen some of the worst burn from glyphosate and metolachlor that I’ve ever witnessed.
We have more fields with a little higher than desired plant populations and a few that we’ve struggled to get a good stand for various reasons. All in all, it’s a good start.

Reporting from the South Delta, Bryan Boyd, Edwards
6/12/2017 – Cotton ranges from just replanted to 11th node. This has been the hardest start I can remember. Most fields look ok on the upper end and very stunted on the low ends. My oldest cotton was supposed to be sprayed last week with imidacloprid for plant bugs averaging around 6%-8% but heavy rains last Monday and Tuesday caused a lot of it go under water, so it was never sprayed. Gates on the levee were opened Friday so a lot of the water is gone today. The cotton is still alive and is now running around 20% plant bugs with quite a bit of fruit shed. Most other cotton will be sprayed this week and next week with imidacloprid. We finally got into fields at the end of last week with herbicide applications. Approximately 110 acres have been abandoned because deer have destroyed the stand.
We will start fungicide applications in oldest soybeans next week. Still trying to clean up a few fields but otherwise pretty quiet right now.
Peanuts range from 21-35 days old. I have several fields that are 30+ days old that look like they are just emerging because deer are eating them up. I have never had this much deer damage. We can’t seem to get ahead of them.

Reporting from the North Delta is David Dubard, Cleveland
6/12/2017 – It’s been a tough start with cotton which ranges anywhere from cotyledon to 12 nodes. Insect pressure has been light. Pig weeds under control with dicamba.
Soybean crop looks fantastic – 95% of my beans were planted in April. Insect and disease pressure low.
Corn crop looks good as all was planted early. Insect pressure is low. Disease pressure starting to increase in some varieties.

Reporting from South Mississippi, Trey Bullock, Hattiesburg
6/12/2017 – Cotton planters have been going since Friday trying to finish up. Rains came through today and I think that will wind up cotton planting for 2017. Plant bugs are picking up in pinhead square cotton. Sprayers have been running since last Friday and most growers got caught up on herbicide applications. Some fields were pretty grown up and were in dire straights from weed pressure and moisture stress. Cotton looked a lot better today with the 4 days of sunshine since last Thursday. Aphids are present in most fields with some honeydew in a few of the older fields. Really need some dry weather to help establish root system but forecast is not looking good.
Most peanut fields have had herbicide apps and are in pretty good shape. Gypsum applications have gone out on older peanuts where they could stand up. No other problems in peanuts.
Soybeans are still mainly in the sack. Hoping to get planted soon but weather is not cooperating at all.
Corn looks pretty good with not a lot of disease at the present.
Biggest problem is still wet fields, lots of drowned out spots and more rain coming.

Reporting from East Mississippi, John Clark Cook, Vaiden
6/13/2017 – Cotton: Ranging from just planted to 10th node. Thrips have been moderate this year been using acephate where needed. Plant bugs starting to show up, using imidacloprid on them. Weeds have been a problem, finally able to get fields cleaned up over the weekend.
Soybeans: Range from staying in the sack to R3. Can find RBSB in most older soybeans at low levels, but other than that no bug pressure. Weeds are the same as the cotton trying to get them cleaned up.
Corn: Loving the water and cool temps, no problems at this time.
Peanuts: Range from just emerging to staying in the sack and being shipped to Florida. No problems at this time.
This preventive planting may be a good option for growers but it damn hurts on this end. A budget buster for sure!

Reporting from the South Delta, Herbert Jones, Leland
6/7/2017 – I agree with others that this has been a trying year to get this cotton crop in. Today is the 7th of June and some seed is still in the bag. The majority of my cotton has or will require 2 insecticide applications to control thrips. With lack of sunshine, cooler temperatures and excessive rainfall, cotton is not growing very well. The forecast looks good for the rest of this week and maybe we will get the spurt of growth we need.
Soybean and corn are progressing nicely with very little insect pressure.

Reporting from the South Delta, Jason Grafton, Madison
6/8/17 – We have had a lot of problems this year. If it gets dry enough in next day or two for ground rigs to run, we may be wishing it had kept raining. My hopes are that we are smart when applying herbicides and on label. Some places haven’t been planted the first time. Some places will get planted three times. Soybeans are still in the bag to R4. We will start fungicide applications next week on our R3/R4 beans. We have been seeing RBSB and GSB but in low numbers. Despite the struggles the oldest beans are looking good.
Cotton is from still in the bag (and may stay there) to 9th node. This crop has been slow to take off but a lot of it is finally looking like a cotton crop. Insect pressure has been low. We have treated a few fields for thrips but nothing like I thought we would, considering the weather. Pinhead treatments are getting lined up on squaring cotton. Weeds are the most pressing issue at the moment.

Reporting from South Mississippi, Trey Bullock, Hattiesburg
6/8/2017 – Cotton ranges from cotyledon to 12th node. Growers are trying to clean up fields after being out of the field for a couple of weeks. Most fields are pretty saturated and most cotton is red stemmed and stunted. All cotton planted in mid-April has no root system and all fields are not holding fruit very well. Plant bugs are well below threshold but some treatments are going out with growth regulators and RoundUp. I think we have a few days of no rain but chances pick back up Sunday. All cotton is still not planted. They will plant through the 15th if fields dry up enough to get it in.
Peanuts are in okay shape overall. Residuals are still holding well. Some herbicides have gone out on older peanuts and have worked well. Oldest peanuts are around 59 days old today. Pegs are few and far between. Peanuts seem to be running about a week behind. No insects at this time.
Soybeans are still in the sack for the most part. What few acres I have planted are at R-4 and look really good. No insects at the present.
Corn is from V-5 to roasting ear. Disease is still very low to nonexistent. Have a few fields that have been too wet to get herbicides out. Hopefully they can get in soon.
All in all, this has been a rough start. Got to get better!!!

Reporting from North Delta, Billy Price, Charleston
6/8/2017 – We have cotton from two leaves to pinhead square. Weed control has been a challenge with the weather, very little replant.
Corn is just before tassel to ear forming, very little disease except some common rust.
Beans are from 4 trifoliate to R3, with about 10% to plant and 1000 acres to replant because of dicamba drift. This is all Will and I have done for 2 months is look at complaints, it is from Tallahatchie Co. to Panola and Quitman Co. We are past sick and tired of this issue!!!!!

Reporting from East Mississippi, Ty Edwards, Water Valley
6/8/2017 – Cotton- Our entire crop ranges from 3-5 true leaves. We seem to be on the back end of the thrips situation now. We sprayed a lot of acres for them, mostly included in a herbicide application. But after we knocked them out the first time, they didn’t seem to re-infest like they usually do. In a few cases of no till, we upped the rate to take out alfalfa hoppers. Surprisingly, pigweed control is great so far. Our pre at planting held on good, and we’ve already been over everything with 1-2 more shots of something, mainly either a Dual type product or Staple. Had one grower that hadn’t used Staple in about 8 years spray a “highly roundup resistant” population of pigweeds with 2 oz. Staple and absolutely smoked them. The majority of our cotton will be squaring next week.
Soybeans- If it weren’t for the drift/inversion issues with dicamba, there would be virtually nothing to talk about. Most beans got planted in an early window in April. Those that didn’t just got planted the last few weeks of May.
Corn- Well, this corn crop is absolutely loving this weather. And so are the growers. So far, not a single well has been fired up. We’ve been applying a top shot of N to compensate for all this rain, and the assumed loss of N.
Sweet potato- Everybody is done setting. We got the best set we’ve ever had. Transplant survival was near 100%, and we’re done almost 2 weeks early. Because of the moisture and cooler conditions, growers were able to begin setting earlier in the morning than usual and not worry about survival. We’re beginning to plow now, as well as incorporate a few things in front of the cultivators.

Reporting from the South Delta, Haley Easley, Greenwood
6/8/2017 – Soybeans and corn look extremely good. A lot of corn is pollinated and still has not been irrigated. There are some weed pressure in some bean and cotton fields that are becoming a problem due to wet weather. Plant bug pressure a little higher than in past years on squaring cotton and most fields receiving applications of imidacloprid as they begin to square. Sweeping more stink bugs than normal but still below threshold. I have swept several redbanded stink bugs in last 10 days. Corn disease very low for now except some common rust but still at low levels. Seems like insect pressure may be a little higher than normal. We are enjoying frequent rains but needs to warm up a bit to get cotton growing.

Fall manure application is underway across the state. Livestock producers and commercial manure applicators are applying manure to fields following corn silage harvest and will soon be applying to harvested

Crop Progress and Condition for the Week Ending September 24, 2017. Comments from Cooperative Extension Service County Agents Dr. Bill Burdine, Union County “Soybean harvest is underway with good yields.